This publication is so rare one can’t help but suspect these two issues constitute the entire publication. The second volume is inscribed on the upper wrapper by the editor “L’Abbé André Reinaud, Mss. Apostolique, Kandy.”
André Jean Valentin Reinaud was born in France in 1813 and arrived in Ceylon in the mid-1840s, not long after being expelled from the Oblates. He was perhaps looking to catapitalise on the recent demise of the Colombo Catholic Magazine which was a short-lived publication in 1846 and appeared in both English and Sinhala. He states openly that The Ceylon Catholic Sower would be printed in English only. Reinaud was known as a keen self-promoter with ideas of becoming Bishop of Kandy. Indeed, Father Semeria wrote of Reinaud: “he is a clever fellow who thinks above all of his own interests.”
With a stated intention to “sow the heavenly seed in the heart of our readers,” there’s a piece on Catholic schools in Colombo, another on the waywardness of Protestantism, and, of added interest, a section titled “local intelligence,” which concerns the activities of the Right Rev. Orazio Bettaghini who was active in the Northern provinces of the island.
The second issue commences with the somewhat aggressive proclamation that “the Catholic Church does not forbid the investigation of the grounds of her faith.” However, there is a section on the Catholic Printing Press of Colombo, in which he complains that the “business of the printing office … [seems] to be conducted rather as a private speculation of some individuals than as a matter of public interest.” Reinaud recommends that entire control of the press be given over to him. The column on “local intelligence” concerns the new church at Nuwera Ellia and Badulla (“one of the central places and strongholds of Budhism” [sic]). The piece “foreign intelligence” reports news from Syria, Niniveh, Prussia, and Oxford. Both issues conclude with a list of festivals for that month.
Reinaud later suggested that the Propaganda Fide should set up three vicariates in Ceylon and entrust the vicariate of Kandy to the Oblates. However, Kandy remained under the jurisdiction of the vicariate in Colombo.
Very rare: not on OCLC. Rare Book Hub records a single copy at Swann in 1987.
Kularatne, T., History of Printing and Publishing in Ceylon, 1736-1912 (Dehiwala, 2006), p.188; Semeria, F., “Letters to Ceylon and Africa, 1847-1860” in Oblate Writings I, vol. 4, no. 72, p.95.
